Sparklers and Smoke bombs

Who knew one could  get colored smoke bombs! 

 Jim with all the kids; waiting somewhat patiently for him to light them up.  He even let all of them throw one out, but the urgency didn't not always get through like it should have. No incidents, but goodness when we say 'Throw it!', it does not mean 'hold on to it, then throw it'. Right?

 

EW with her sparkler! 

 

One of the cats even got to see the show.

 

CW with her sparkler! 

Cousin G, not quite sure what to think of it. She's a little wimpy when it came to just whirling it around and having fun with them.

This was the extent of our fireworks, we forgot to shoot of the rest. Oh, well.  I think all this was enough excitement for our evening. 

(sorry for the post to be somewhat out of order, it's call 'catch up' and I am going to blog with what pictures I have from the summer!  :)  Stay tune.)

until next time,

Lexie ><> 

Paul Bunyan Land

Back in August the girls and I took a trip to visit my parents. I will have to say that it was one crazy trip with to many kid activities.

My mom wanted to take all her grand kids to Paul Bunyan. All find and dandy but when there is only 1 adult and 5 kids, 3 being younger then 4, I thought someone needed to go with. Low and behold, it was not me. Thank goodness. I needed a break, so did EKW.

CMW to this day still does not like the 'big man'. That is Paul Bunyan. She says, 'he is scary'. When you first come into Paul Bunyan Land, your name is taken and Paul is a gigantic statue that welcomes you with this jolly lumberjack voice, stating your name. My mom commented that each time they walked passed him, she hung on to her for dear life. (I would have a picture but my camera taking the pictures did not come back with a Paul picture.)

From the looks of the pictures every one had a great time. CMW went on all the rides possible. Her Mawga P even had to get off the swinging ship do to sudden sickness from riding the 2nd time. Poor Mawga, but she certainly was a good sport about riding rides. And a bonus! This Mawga P. also went on the ferris wheel for CMW, due to a fear of heights she does not like to attempt rides such as these but like I said, she was a good sport.

Here' the troop, my sister the only one not available.

The Mawga P with CMW and cousin J.

I believer this picture is next to big Paul and CMW is covering her ears cause he is loud.

Now that September is here, hopefully i'll be back to posting more.

But I assume, like usual my sewing will take over. :-)

Meet the Pony!

Back in July, after vacation, we went to visit lexie's parents to celebrate her moms birthday. We also managed to fit in what CMW is been wanting to do but it just never gets done; to ride the pony!

So here she is. Meet Duck! She's the pony at my parents place, owned by the sister and husband.

CMW had a good time and I think once was enough but she would go again if given the chance.

And this is Cousin Z! Isn't the cowboy hat a good touch?!

A few of the kids watching the pony get saddled up.

After all the kids got a ride, my sister rode her for a little bit and boy did she get a ride of her life. I don't even know if she's ever had such an exciting ride before. We now know that pony can buck and rear like no other. My poor sister got the brunt of it too but now we also learned she needs a little more work before any younger person decides to try Duck out on their own.

How about you, have you had an interesting ride that includes a pony?

Vacation Fun !

We took a family vacation with Jim's family to the North Shore. All 13 of us stayed at one rental house up the shore in the middle of the woods for 6 days.

Jim, myself and the girls did some decent hiking even with the parks being closed,we enjoyed the sunshine, water, our time together and the extended family.

Cousin J and CMW at the zoo. While most of the adults went to see the Glensheen Mansion, the dads took these two to a kid friendly attraction.

EKW walking the shore

We visited Two Harbors and wanted to go see the pier/light house but there was construction and would not allow visitors. So we walked the water and picked rocks, watched the boats get loaded up and visited the train.

We went to Gooseberry and Temperance state parks and forgot our camera, so no photos there. But Jim did swim and participated in cliff jumping, CMW thought it was to chilly to swim. EKW and mom stayed out of the water.

We also spent an afternoon in WI, we went swimming and hiking. Here is one of the water falls. It was a nice park with a decent swimming beach and hike.

And one thing I enjoyed but would never advise anyone else to pay was the train ride from the historic depot/train museum. It took us to north Duluth and back. It was nice to just sit, watch and listen to the speaker but I would rather paid for the trip all the way to Two Harbors and actually get to see more of the lake.

We also hit up the Alpine slide at Spirit Mtn. on our way home. I would say, that's worth the price. CMW went with her mom and dad. The trip down was just as fun as the trip back up.

Among all this fun, we managed to squeeze in time to visit friends and it was So.Worth.It.

Next years vacation: TBA

Easter

Easter, a weekend full of visiting family and friends and most importantly remembering Christ, who died for our sins and we have been set free because of him!

Can I hear an 'Amen'?

We managed to see all the grand & great grand parents on Lexie's side and visit with the cousins. We tried to see the aunts & uncles but with CMW's ear ache (not a fun experience) we passed and headed home.

Lexie also got to see a friends fresh new baby. It was such a joy to see both of them as parents to this baby boy. It helps refresh that children really are blessings and gifts from our Heavenly Father. And I saw Miss SJO from WI, didn't know if she'd be home but I got out my handy dandy phone a sent a text. I'm glad I did, we had a wonderful visit and worked out a little more of our possible summer trip we'll be taking. Oh what fun! Besides this, we had fun on the farm and a little Easter egg hunt to end the weekend. :-)

Eleanore didn't go hunting for eggs, but she sure was curious of those noise makers.

CMW hunting though Mawga's garden!

Checkin' out her eggs, didn't really want a picture taken. In between the pain of her ear ache, she managed to get out and hunt!

The cousins hunting too!

The littlest buy almost blends into the garden, can you find him ? :-)

Time for cousin bonding.

The latest addition to the cousin's of the Waa side, baby L.

Do you see her in amongst the big kids?

Baby L is 4 weeks old in this picture and still pretty sleepy!

cousin J is 3 mos. shy of 4 yrs, new baby L, CMW is 3, and baby E is 7 mos.